The invention concerns a method of counting uniform objects passing a counting location on a conveyor.
Uniform objects to be counted during conveyance may be, for example, beer bottles, which are conveyed in a brewery between various treatment stations, often in several lanes on the conveyor. The counting of bottles at two or more locations on the conveyor may be used, for example, for controlling the speed of a belt conveyor for the bottles for reducing the noise caused by bottle collisions thereon.
Known counters for this have plural sensors at each location, each of which inhibits the other sensors when activated in counting an object. The inhibition is to prevent a passing object from being counted again by a second one of the sensors, and the geometrical arrangement of the sensors ensures that any passing object will be counted by one of the sensors.